Right down the street from the Alabama State Capitol Building is the bus stop where Rosa Parks stepped on in 1955 and sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she was arrested for not moving to the rear of the bus because she was African American. We stood here for a moment taking in the energy of this place and trying to imagine the scene that played out here on that fateful day.
There is something very special about standing in this places where history happened. I looked around at the stores nearby, at the sky and the trees and the cars going by just as Ms. Parks must have done. What was on her mind? What were her thoughts as she looked around at the same sky, the same trees, the same street I wondered. This is why travel is so amazing and so important to how I raise my kids. Those are the questions I encourage them to ask themselves as they think about history. I want it to be personal, I want it to be real. History has so many lessons to teach us, and the best way to take those lessons to heart is to make it as real as possible. The further and more distant it becomes, the greater likelihood that those lessons will be long forgotten and our mistakes destined to be repeated.
